


Gentle Giants

by teapotpourri



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: F/F, Fluffy winter fic, Genderswap, Harry is obsessed with giraffes, girl!Harry, girl!Louis, this is all sorts of stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-26 17:43:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2660822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teapotpourri/pseuds/teapotpourri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brown curly hair peeping out of the hood of her anorak, the girl had big blue-greenish eyes that were widened in anticipation. “Why did the baboon ask the giraffe ‘Why the long face?” - Louis was fascinated by Harry the moment she met her and still now, she'd do anything to make Harry the happiest giraffe obsessed person on the planet. Warning: Includes bad jokes, soppy birthday traditions and stupid amounts of giraffe references.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gentle Giants

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sopattable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopattable/gifts).



> Dear OG!  
> You asked for girl!HxL in one of the prompts and giraffes in another, so this is what you get. Hope you like it and maybe you even know who I am? We're pals :)  
> Also I'm curious to see if you pick up on one of the joke references I made hehe.  
> Enjoy!!
> 
> General disclaimer: I've never been to London Zoo, but those giraffes with those names do exit. I have no idea about the area though and this is all a work of pure fiction with 100% inaccuracy. I also don't claim to know anything about Harry and Louis or One Direction, this is very obviously an AU based on zero true grounds. Okay thanks byee

Winter is one of Louis’ favourite seasons, if not her most favourite. After all it’s the time of Christmas, hot teas, cozy nights, her birthday, and snuggles under warm blankets. But now it is the first of February and three months of cold and wet feet are definitely enough. And no, wearing boots instead of her beloved Vans is definitely not an option. Even if that meant that she had to put on three pair of socks with ridiculous patterns on them to get past Harry when leaving the house, “It’s too cold, Lou. I’m not going to give you any foot rubs anymore if your feet turn into ice blocks.” And that is just not fair, especially not when eighty percent of the foot rubs precede an orgasm. Not that Harry’s foot rubs themselves are orgasmic, but she definitely knows how to use her hands on all of Louis’ body parts.

Louis cautiously walks up the path to the building in which she and Harry have been renting a flat for over a year now, avoiding the icy spot she almost slipped on earlier when she left the house. Clutching the paper bag filled with warm sticky buns, she finally reaches the front door, slips her key into the lock, and pushes the door open. Since the lift has been broken, Louis has gotten into the habit of basically running up the three flights of stairs to their flat, unless she had just been to the shops and was loaded with goods. Today she has an additional reason to get back to the flat as fast as she can; it’s Harry’s birthday and Louis prays that she has not woken up to the empty Louis-shaped spot in their bed yet. Fortunately, the curtains in the living room are still drawn and there are no sounds from the bathroom when Louis stumbles into the flat. She boils water for their tea, rummages through the fridge for fruit to put into Harry’s smoothie, arranges the buns into a small basket, and puts everything on a tray before balancing it into their bedroom. Walking on her tippy toes, she puts the tray on the night table on her side of the bed, before slowly opening the curtains to let the mild winter sun into the room. Harry is still sound asleep, her long dark curls splayed out over her pillow, her eyelashes slightly shaking when Louis crawls back under the duvet and starts pressing soft kisses up Harry’s naked shoulder.

“Wake up, birthday girl,” she whispers and strokes back a strand of hair, exposing Harry’s neck to her kisses. Slowly Louis sees a smile creeping up on Harry’s face.

With her eyes still firmly shut, a happy sigh escapes Harry’s lips, “Yay, happy birthday to me!”

“Look what I’ve got you!” Louis excitedly reaches back for the tray, balances it up on her knees and holds up Harry’s new tea mug.

“Aw, you shouldn’t have to, Louis!” Harry sits up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes to inspect the mug a little more closely. There is a picture of Louis, Harry, and Ellish on it, smiling brightly - or at least Harry and Louis do. Ellish is basically just big eyes, dopey eyelashes and all cheeky ears. But after all, what else would you expect of a giraffe?

Harry carefully takes the mug out of Louis’ hands and rubs her fingertip lovingly over Ellish’s face, the smile temporarily disappearing from her face: “I miss her. Like, visiting her is a birthday tradition and this year we can’t.”

Louis sighs quietly and presses her face into Harry’s neck. “I know, baby. I really wish we could. Those renovations in the giraffe house suck but we don’t want them to get sick because the heating doesn’t work properly, right?”

Harry nods silently and takes a sip of her tea. “Thank you though. I love the mug. And the tea.” She grabs the tray and pulls it towards her, so that it is now balanced on both Louis’ left and Harry’s right thigh. “And the brekkie.” Harry’s smiles sneaks back up onto her lips and her eyes when she leans in to softly kiss Louis.

Harry tastes a bit like too mushy chewing gum and peanuts and that really shouldn’t taste this nice, Louis thinks. She wishes she could fulfill all of Harry’s dreams, everyday actually but particularly today. Last week she had suggested to go to another zoo to see some giraffes, but Harry argued that she’d rather mope in peace then go and replace Ellish with some nameless giraffe from Whipsnade Zoo. After all ZSL London Zoo was also the place where Louis and Harry first met.

 

*

 

When Louis’ teacher said that they would be going to the zoo with a class of primaries who would start secondary school that autumn, she was already bored out of her mind. Going to the zoo was something for babies, but then again, that was just perfect for those new kids, right? The fact that Louis was two years older than the raincoat clad horde of 12-year-olds was crucial. That said, she never would have admitted that the moment they went to see the lions, she was indeed quite happy with Ms Matthews’ decision to go to the zoo. The way the mother lion pranced around so elegant and independent without ever losing sight of her little ones, fascinated Louis.

Now, they were climbing the platform by the giraffe enclosure. They came face to face with the giraffes who were munching on some leaves, totally unimpressed by the group of ten children goggling at them. They were majestic and yet had the impressive attitude of not giving a fuck. It kind of really reminded Louis of her friend Zayn, although she wasn’t and never will be that tall or clumsy. Because with all the grace of the giraffes’ long necks and their heavy eyes, their walk tended to be a bit awkward.

Then, someone was pulling at her coat, trying to get Louis’ attention. Turning her head, Louis saw one of the primary girls. Brown curly hair peeping out of the hood of her anorak, the girl had big blue-greenish eyes that were widened in anticipation. “Why did the baboon ask the giraffe ‘Why the long face?”

Louis was taken by a surprise, stammering a “Why?” before she could refrain herself.

The curly girl smirked with pride. “Because he thought the giraffe’s neck was his face!”

Incredulous, Louis stared at the girl who was now full on laughing at her own joke, clasping her hands over her mouth. Louis couldn’t help but smile too now; giggling she said “Oh my god, that was awful!”

“Heyyy.”

The girl pretended to be offended, but the smile returned on her face immediately when Louis reached to shake her hand, conspiratorially whispering “I’m Louis.”

“Harry,” Harry introduced herself, tugging one of her curls back under the hood.

Little did Louis know then that only two months later Harry would become her buddy in the school’s buddy system. This meant that she got to show her new friend around the school - she pointed out when it was best to sneak into the computer lab for a game or two and told her all the gossip and rumours about their teachers and basically everyone who ever set a foot on the school ground. In the beginning she was wary to introduce Harry to Zayn and Liam since she was only a year 8, but once she also had gotten to know Harry’s friend Niall, she decided to fuck her own policy of only befriending kids her own age or older and started hanging out with all of them outside of school. Harry was quirky, a bit clumsy sometimes, and she laughed at all of Louis’ jokes the loudest but she also continued to tell her all of her new jokes to Louis.

Since that day at the zoo, Harry had also been positively obsessed with giraffes. In fact, one time she snuck into the school library with Zayn to steal a book about giraffes, only to write down some “cool stuff” like she said and then returned it the next day when her mother found it under her bed. More often than not Harry started saying things like “I bet you wish you were a giraffe. They don’t sweat, did you know that, Louis?” and “NASA actually have scientists who study the skin of giraffes so they can reconstruct it for spacesuits, how cool is that, Louis?” and Louis just smiled and counted her pocket money in the back of head.

It wasn’t until Harry’s thirteen’s birthday that Louis could afford to buy them two entry tickets to the zoo to revisit the giraffes and...

“I’ve actually found out why they have these long necks, Louis,” she said when they went into the giraffe house where the giraffes were kept in the winter.

“Oh?” Louis was incredibly proud that she managed to make Harry so happy with her little present.

“Because they’ve got smelly feet!” Harry burst out laughing so loud that all three giraffes turned her heads towards them.

Louis giggled along, “They don’t seem amused.”

They then watched Ellish chase Maggie around, Harry got one of the zookeepers to tell them all about when and where the giraffes were born and finally they bought some ice cream although it was one of the coldest days of the year. Harry’s mum picked them up at the zoo when it closed and they went back to Harry’s house. They sat down on Harry’s bed while her mother prepared tea in the kitchen downstairs, Louis had fetched a sharpie from Harry’s desk and started drawing a giraffe-like spot pattern on Harry’s hand. Harry was silently watching Louis draw, noticing how her friend was actually drawing a bunch of odd L’s on her hand.

Soon the sharpie would wash off in the shower, but Harry would remember it every time when one of those stupid year 9 boys would push her in the school hallway. She hadn’t told Louis about it because Louis was always so tough and pretty badass about everything, even if people called her all sorts of names. So there really was no reason for her to tell Louis that she was crying about boys calling her a “nerd”.

In the end it only took a couple of weeks for Louis to witness the scene in the hallway, she and Zayn immediately jumped in between Harry and the Bishop twins, threatening them to “rip their balls off” which then again was overheard by Mr Connell who sent Louis to the headmistress. The next day Louis brought blue lollipops to school which they ate at lunch. “Look,” she exclaimed and stuck her tongue out which now was very blue, “just like a giraffe!” This was also the first day Harry really wanted to kiss Louis.

 

Exactly 935 days of wanting to kiss Louis later it actually happened. Louis was going to leave secondary school in only a few months, a fact that Harry had been pouting about for weeks but at least Louis planned on staying in London. After she snogged Susan B. at a party, it was no secret that Louis liked kissing girls. Harry had decided to try drinking a few pints that night although she didn’t like the taste and it ended up with her bent over the toilet seat but at least Louis’ hand was in her hair, soothingly playing with her long curls. Harry was going to be 16 soon and so far she had done nothing but hold Louis’ hand when they watched a scary movie and had only ever kissed Niall’s friend Josh as part of a dare because well, Josh was a drummer and Harry liked music-y people. She wasn’t so sure about liking boys though.

In the end it was another February the 1st, Harry’s 16th birthday, and like every year, they went into the giraffe house to visit Ellish and the other two giraffes, Molly and Maggie, at the zoo.

“You’ve grown up to be quite the giraffe yourself since we’ve first met here, Harriet,” Louis teased her but in fact, she had been grumbling about Harry being taller than her since before christmas.

“I like it up here just fine, thank you Louise.” Harry smirked and winked at Ellish who was still of course ten times taller than Harry.

For a few minutes they just watched Molly scratching Maggie’s back, but then Louis slipped her hand into Harry’s, Harry’s cheek started to heat up immediately. It was not unusual for them to hold hands but now Louis was standing up on her tippy toes, pressing her front to Harry’s while her other hand snuck into the hair behind Harry’s neck. Harry was a bit dumbstruck when Louis whispered, “Happy birthday, my little tall giraffe!” and then just kissed her.

It was over in a second, just soft lips on soft lips but Harry already wanted more. “I think I may be ridiculously in love with you, Lou.” Harry’s eyes nervously caught Louis’.

“I think I may be, too,” Louis whispered back before kissing Harry again, this time with a tiny bit of tongue.

 

*

 

“So why don’t giraffes do drugs?” Louis sips the last bit of her tea and places the whole tray on their nightstand.

“Oh please,” Harry giggles, “bad jokes are my speciality!”

“So you are admitting to telling bad jokes?” Louis smirks and straddles her girlfriend of exactly four years.

“You wish! They’re well bloody brilliant!” Harry exclaims and lets her hand sneak under Louis’ top, just a little bit to feel the warmth of her body on her fingertips.

“All I know is that if bad jokes are indeed your speciality, like you claim, you would know why giraffes don’t smoke weed,” Louis grins and praises herself for searching the Internet for some silly giraffe jokes when she was waiting in line at the bakery only just an hour ago. “C’mon just tell me, Louise!”

Sometimes Harry is still the little girl Louis first met on the giraffe platform at the zoo. Even now that she is 20 years old, more gorgeous than ever and her photography professor’s favourite student, she is still dorky as hell and Louis wouldn’t want it any other way.

“Because they’re naturally high.” Louis smiles into Harry’s mouth and kisses her, but Harry is so shaken up by laughing that their teeth clack together.

“Is that why you sometimes get unnaturally high?” Harry grins, “my tiny muffin?”

“Shut it,” Louis grumbles and goes back to kissing Harry, nibbling at her lower lip before slipping her tongue into Harry’s mouth.

They snog for a little, Harry’s hand wandering up in Louis’ top, until she strips it off of her and unclasps her bra.

“Birthday sex or anniversary sex first?” Harry mumbles, cupping Louis’ firm boobs and letting her left pinky run over Louis’ right nipple.

“Birthday first, still have a surprise before we celebrate our anniversary, alright?” Louis pants and helps Harry out of her The Killers t-shirt which is a little small on her because it is in fact Louis’. After getting rid of the rest of their clothes, Louis kisses down Harry’s smooth stomach, sucking a love bite right underneath her belly button. Next, she presses her index right against Harry’s clit, slowly rubbing it before slipping two of her fingers between Harry’s wet and open vaginal lips. “That good?” Louis presses kisses up Harry’s inner thigh, scissoring her with her fingers.

Harry just moans “More” and well - Louis can definitely do more. Licking over Harry’s clit she starts fucking faster in and out of Harry, breaking the rhythm every few seconds, before dipping her tongue alongside two of her fingers inside Harry. Harry now is panting faster and faster, gripping at Louis’ hair a little and shifting her hips against Louis’ face. Only few hot seconds later she is clenching around Louis’ fingers and coming with one last moan. Happily, Louis licks her lips and crawls up until her mouth finds Harry’s again.

 

After another round of sweaty cuddles and a shared shower, they finally get dressed. Unfortunately it’s a work day for Louis, so she has to leave Harry by half nine to catch the tube to the advertisement company.

“Tonight you will get your surprise,” she says and presses one last kiss to Harry’s lips and then she’s out of the door, running with her still wet hair blowing in the wind.

Harry goes to the window to see her wave before she turns around the corner, her laugh so wild that it makes Harry’s heart jump. Only then Harry notices that it has started snowing. There is still the thin white blanket of snow on the roof tops all around from last week’s snow but now there are also fresh heavy, plushy snowflakes dropping from the sky, covering the road with bits of white. It is going to be a great day, Harry decides, although the thought of not being able to see the giraffes today is still sitting heavily in the back of her mind.

 

Harry honestly thinks Louis has forgotten about her surprise until they sit in the car back home from dinner with the whole Twist/Styles family. It’s already dark outside and Harry has had a couple of glasses of wine which is why she first doesn’t notice when Louis doesn’t take the right turns to go back to their flat.

“Where are we going, Louis?” Harry finally asks.

“Don’t you wanna know?” Louis smiles back but it soon becomes evident where they are headed when Louis pulls up by the zoo, parks the car and opens the door to a baffled Harry.

“What are we doing here?” she whispers, impressed by how silent it is at night at the zoo.

“C’mon, we’re visiting the giraffes!” Louis pulls out two black beanies and tugs one of them over Harry’s curls.

“You’re crazy,” Harry is still in shock, but she is smiling.

So Louis hasn’t really thought this whole thing through but today at work she realised that this whole not seeing the giraffes thing was a fact that she can’t and won’t accept so easily. Fortunately the fence is not as high as Louis has expected, so they actually make it into the zoo just fine.

“Do you think they have security cameras?” Harry is clutching Louis’ hand as if they are walking through a haunted house.

“Probably?” Louis frowns and tugs Harry’s beanie a little deeper into her face and hides some loose curls by pushing them down the back of Harry’s jacket. They can’t help but giggle when they finally reach the giraffe house, dim lights shining faintly just outside of it.

“So how do we get in?” Harry wonders when she sees the big sign that says that the house is not open for visitors because of renovations.

“There must be another entrance somewhere.” Louis sneaks around the corner of the building and indeed there is a wooden door with a tiny window.

“Look, you can see Ellish! Loving life as much as ever.” Louis tugs Harry in front of the window because of course, the door itself is locked. They don’t end up being successful with trying to pick the lock or even finding a key but Harry is still happy because she still gets to see the three majestic giraffes through a tiny window. Pressing Louis against the wall of the building, Harry kisses her thank you, presses little ‘I love you’s’ into her skin until she sleeks back Louis’ fringe and cups her face with both her hands, “I love you so fucking much, Lou. Happy 4 years.”

“Happy 4 years,” Louis agrees, “and just for the record, I fucking love you too. So much that I can’t wait for the day we book our flights to see giraffes in the wild.”

“Really?” Harry is kind of speechless.

“Yeah, let it be my first present to you when I get my first decent pay cheque,” Louis pinky swears.

“That’s honestly the most romantic thing anyone could ever do for me.” Harry’s eyes glint happily.

“Well, you are an odd one after all. My little tall giraffe.” Louis winks and reaches to take her final present out of her pocket. “For now though, this shall be my present for you for surviving 20 years on this earth, which include the 4 - or actually make that 8 - years with me.”

Harry opens the tiny box with clumsy fingers, staring in awe at the ring inside. It’s a simple silver ring with a tiny ocean blue stone.

“It’s so gorgeous, Lou!” Harry’s smile could split her face.

“C’mon try it on!” Louis takes the ring out of the box and slides it over Harry’s ring finger.

“I promise,” Louis finally says and with a flustered sigh Harry once again presses Louis against the wall, laughing she says, “For a second I thought you were going to propose there!”

In between kisses Louis mumbles, “Our engagement will be way better planned, what do you think of me? Watching three clumsy giraffes through a tiny window while probably being taped by at least three security cameras… well that actually sounds kind of perfect for us.” Louis smirks.

“Only that it’s cold and winter and I really want to have sex with you now.” Harry says with a grin, her eyes growing dark. And yeah, that was indeed a flaw. Casting one last glance to Ellish who is still way too unimpressed by everything happening around her, Louis tugs Harry after her through the snow, the promise ring on Harry’s finger glistening like the snowflakes dropping from the dark night sky.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed it - especially you, OG!  
>  Please feel free to leave some feedback in the comments and/or give this some Kudos love ;)  
> 
> 
> Thanks so much to my lovely beta and dearest friend [Nat](http://zimriya.tumblr.com). You can also find me on [tumblr](http://teapotpourri.tumblr.com). x


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